Sunday morning

This morning, I made pancakes and bacon for Alex.  In the meantime, Bill was sleeping in and Ben was staying the night at a friend's.  The dogs were sleeping, lounging and Callie was begging for food.  Callie is the black dog and the newest edition to the family!

Cub Scouts

The moms or dads get to go up with the boys as they get their badge

me and Trish enjoying the festivities

Both boys have been involved with Scouts this year.  Ben is a Weeblos I and Alex is a Tiger.  Every January, they have a promotions ceremony to advance the boys to their next level.  The meeting took place at Desert Breeze Park last week.  It was a nice time, most of the families attend and it's a nice way to acknowledge all the work the boys have done since August. They still get to finish up with the rest of their badges, belt loops and pins until May.  Souting has been great for both boys and it's a great family activity!

Alex and Bella

Monday was Civil Rights Day and I took the opportunity of the day off to take Bella and Alex to the Scottsdale Train Park.  Those two are so cute together - they really enjoy each other.  After they rode the train, carousel and played on the playground, we drove through McDonalds's for some ice cream cones.  The weather was perfect and we had a great afternoon.

More Vegas

Our view

Lynn & Michael hanging out in the time share

kids posing with a fake spongebob

playing at the arcade

Circus Circus fun park

Mr. Fuzzy

B-I-N-G-O

purple hair lady

Some other fun things we did in Vegas - the amusement park at Circus Circus; the fun dungeon at Excalibur, Lizzy's gymnastics meet - she got 3 medals!  We played Bingo at the casino - didn't win but there was a lady there with purple hair!  There was also a lot of hanging out at the time share - the kids bought these Mr. Fuzzy magic tricks and they had hours of fun playing with them  - my dad even made his own out of the foil form a wine bottle!  The last night my parents and I went to the casino next door - I made it until 2 a.m., and then had to take a short nap until my wake up call at 4:15 to get to the airport to fly standby with Ben! All in all, it was a great weekend!

Las Vegas

Ben on his first airplane trip

outside New York New York casino

M&M store

Nana and Mark walking into the Coke Store

Papa & Nana at the M&M store



having fun looking at all the Coca Cola products



Nana and Lizzy at the Rainforest Cafe at MGM

Last weekend Ben and I met my parents and the Phipps in Vegas.  We were there for Lizzy's gymnastics meet on Saturday, but went on Thursday to enjoy a vacation and show the kids some sights in Vegas.  It was Ben's first plane ride, so that was pretty exciting!  Unfortunately, I was pretty ill with a stomach ailment during the first day, but I was able to relax and felt better by the next day.  The first night we took the bigger kids out to the Vegas Strip and walked through NY NY casino, took them shopping at the M&M and Coca Cola store, and then went to the MGM to go to the Rainforest Cafe.  You can see they were having a great time!

Zoo Lights, 2010

I'm still catching up on my holiday posts!  We went to zoo lights just before new year's.  It had been a few years since we had been and it was even better than I remember.  It's always so crowded and we had to park really far away...but after the long haul to get there, we had a great time walking around.  Well...most of us....Ben said he was "bored"...OK, the boy is 9 1/2 !! Tween years, here we come!  I enjoyed it and boy, did they have some delicious hot chocolate there!

Sister Night Out

Just before Christmas, Lynn got a night off from work and we went to the Barrio Cantina - just the two of us!  The restaurant was in north Phoenix and was a new place for us - - I had bought a Groupon back in July to take Lynn for her birthday - but we never had time to go!  We had a nice meal and it was awesome to have sister talk without kids or husbands around!  Note Lynn's cute new "do" courtesy of Curtis!